Thanks to Craig and Walt for their earlier comments, and yes, the exotic
DX results of this trip have far exceeded all expectations for a 5 inch FSL
antenna brought to Hawaii in hand carry luggage. During the last session the
1000 kW 693-Bangladesh finally broke through heavy 690-KHNR splatter, while new
mystery language stations showed up on 675 (apparent Taiwanese, according to
Hiroyuki) and 954 (yet to be assessed by the Real DX experts). 927 also
apparently had a Southeast language lady showing up under China, and 1575 may
have had Radio Farda around 1630. Once again 918-Cambodia rose up to S9 around
1635, and was at good strength right up until its sign off at 1703
https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/dtthxs76wa1w7n0xer9kxcttpzmdwwfc
Probably the greatest challenge of the trip was to keep checking 693
(despite the nasty 690-KHNR splatter) for a possible appearance of
693-Bangladesh, even though the 10 kw Honolulu blaster is only a short distance
away across salt water. 693-JOAB could make it through for the NHK2 music box
sign-off despite the splatter, and I figured that Bangladesh could do it as
well. Finally near the end of the last session at 1639 some 693 audio broke
through, and I was lucky to record the same Bangladesh announcer that was heard
on multiple Cook Island MP3's, speaking in the same apparent language. This was
my last major exotic target except for India, which may well show up in the
many recordings made on previous days (as 657-AIR did after the Cook Island
trip). As of now, definite identification has been made of exotic stations in
Oman, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam.
So what is the overall assessment of Hawaii DXing propagation? It is far
and away more enhanced and diverse than any west coast DXer can possibly
imagine, and a single session can provide exotic results far greater than an
entire year of ocean coast DXing in the Northwest. The forward location of
Kauai allows the band to stay open past 1700 UTC, which is a phenomenal
advantage in going after stations in central Asia, and even the Middle East.
Hawaii does have an excessive number of local stations, but a DXer can usually
work around their splatter by either nulling them out (with FSL's) or by going
to the other side of the island to put the local volcanic cliff to work. The
location of Poipu Beach at the extreme southeast tip of the island proved to be
very fortunate-- as hoped for, there was excellent propagation to East Asia on
all 5 days, and good propagation to North and South America on most days. Some
huge DU signals were recorded from ANZ, Tonga, Samoa, Kiribati an
d Tuvalu on most days, while 702-BBC in Oman actually showed up every day of
the week. For those in the Pacific Northwest who are looking for a new level of
DXing excitement, the Aloha State is definitely THE place to make it happen!
73 and Good DX,
Gary DeBock (DXing at Poipu Beach, Hawaii from Nov. 2-8)
7.5" loopstick CC Skywave SSB Ultralight + 5 inch "Frequent Flyer" FSL antenna
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